Shennika Hermanstyne

Unit 2 Related Skills

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These are the works of art and their information that I used to complete my worksheet. • ‘Celebes’ (1921) by Max Ernst, which belonged to the surrealist movement. • ‘Concon Du Vide’ (2000) by Chen Zhen- this was a part of the modern art exhibition. • Spatial Concept ‘Waiting’ 1960. This was in the exhibition: Arte Povera, an Italian art movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

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Tate Modern- Art Primary Research Trip (Completed handout of research) On the 12th of November, we visited the Tate Modern in hopes to carry out our primary research in regards to art history and general art research. Around the galleries I did get to see familiar Artist works such as Max Ernst, Cy Twombly, Pablo Picasso and George Braque and took pictures for evidence. The task that was assigned to us was to first look at the history of the tate and then find three art pieces such as paintings, sculptures, photographs etc and sketch it on the handout and write about the art movement era they belong too, who the artist was, the name of the piece and what I personally thought of the work. I chose: • ‘Celebes’ (1921) by Max Ernst, which belonged to the surrealist movement. • ‘Concon Du Vide’ (2000) by Chen Zhen- this was a part of the modern art exhibition. • Spatial Concept ‘Waiting’ 1960. This was in the exhibition: Arte Povera, an Italian art movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

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Timeline involving brief notes of Art History

As a class we were assigned different art movements to research in pairs or individual and then present our findings linking the information we found into a written timeline.

Impressionism: This movement is the first on the written timeline and has the artists: Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Dejeuner Sur L’herbe- who created a very important painting called ‘Lunch on the grass’ which consists of two fully dressed men and two naked ladies. One of the reasons to this painting’s importance is because it suggests the idea of how men saw woman at the time.

Cubism 1908: I researched this movement and found that the two important artist were Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Cubism is based on traditional subject matter and is described as being a conceptual approach to realism.

Futurism 1912-15: This followed after Cubism using similar ideas but enhanced it with added speed and technology as well as linking it to photography. This movement had strong links to Fascism.

Dadaism 1919- This movement contained performance art, poetry and collages. Some of the artists were: Max Ernst, Hannah Hoch, Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Tristan Tzara. Because this movement followed after the first World War, the major idea in their work was to display what they thought of the war which was ‘nonsense’ and ‘ridiculous’.

Surrealism 1920- Surrealism is the connection between dreams/subconscious and reality. Dada artist Andre Breton wrote three manifestos on Surrealism creating a link between both movements. Some of the artists that belonged to this movement were Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. Salvador Dali painted melting clocks (‘the persistence of memory’) which symbolised the subconscious and how things of the mind will fade in time.

Abstract Expressionism 1940s: This was inspired by Surrealism and the way the subconscious was portrayed. They used marks, colours and texture etc to describe or represent a feeling or emotion. The Artists Jackson Pollock and Willem Dekooning belong to this movement.

Minimalism 1960s-70s: Works stripped down to the essentials using lines, squares, grids etc. Some f the artists of this part in Art History are: Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin and Dan Flavin.

Pop Art 1958-60s-70s: Pop culture mixed with art. Has Artists: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenberg.

Young British Artists, late 80s: Artist that belongs to this movement is: Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Cornelia Parker, Mark Quinn, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread.

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Anna Barriball was born 1972, Plymouth, UK and is a British artist that is based in South London. As an Artist she works in a variety of media, including paint, pencil, ink, found photographs and video projections. Her work takes on a 3D form through the tracing process and hinges on the smallest interactions with objects and often steps between the parallel languages of drawing and sculpture.

‘Much of her practice explores and depicts the accretion of time – from the length of time it takes for a candle to burn down to the repetitious activity of taking graphite rubbings from objects that bare the traces of their use or function. In her hands a map of the world is transformed into a strange expanse of shimmering substance, or the bounce of a rubber ball on a piece of paper creates the effect of a cosmic explosion. Her interventions produce objects that combine a minimalistic rigour and the seemingly endless endeavour to make sense of the world of objects by empirical study.’

http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/anna_barriball

http://erinkennett.com/anna-barriball/

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Plaster Casting Canteen box- In a Rachel Whiteread Style

Using Rachel Whiteread as inspiration, we carried out the task of casting a whole object- I plaster casted a juice canteen and a piece of jeans fabric.

First things first the plaster cast was mixed to a thicker texture due to it needing to dry quicker once it was inside the canteen box. I cut the top bit of the box off and opened the flaps at the bottom to make the final cast interesting then poured the cast mixture into the canteen and let it dry.

I then dipped the jean fabric into the plaster cast mixture and altered its position to look more folded.

The final casted objects turned out quite interesting and show minor details in a way of simplicity.  

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Casting with Clay and Latex

Following the same process as the casting with clay and plaster cast, I rolled out two more clay bases with bordered edges and pressed my objects into the clay.

The Latex mixture was made and poured into the clay bases and was let a day or so to fully dry- this in comparison to the plaster cast took a lot longer because the plaster cast measure hardened and dried within the same day it was poured onto the clay.

The resulting moulds were very interesting and had the objects I pressed in appearing 3-Dimensional. The Latex result had a rubbery translucent appearance and feel whilst the plaster cast dried into a solid and looks more like a fossil due to its dry texture.

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Casting with clay and plaster cast- (Rachel Whiteread Style)

For this we worked in the 3D workshop room and had to bring in small personal objects such as small toys and trinkets bearing in mind that they would get dirty because they would be pressed into the clay.

I brought in: small animal hard toys that I had as a child, my trinkets case that contained buttons and decorative gems I’ve collected over the years, foreign pennies that I kept as souvenirs from past holidays and seashells.  

After going over some health and safety rules of the workshop we set up and stationed ourselves in our own work spaces. Once we had our on tray boards and rolling pin in front of us, the next step was to cut ourselves a good thickness of clay and roll it out so it’s not too thin and with excess clay mould a thick border on the edges.  

I blended the edges along the sides and corners so when it came to pouring in the plaster cast liquid it wouldn’t leak.

I pressed some of the small toys into the clay in sequence to the buttons I brought in and I think the final result was quite fascinating because it takes on a 3D fossil type appearance.

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As part of the 3D project of our Unit 4, we had to research Rachel Whiteread, who was going to be our inspiration and prime example of our casting tasks.

My Research on Rachel Whiteread:

Rachel Whiteread was born 20th April 1963 and is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, that mostly takes the form of casts. She is one of the Young British Artists and some of her well known works are ‘House’- a large concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian house; the holocaust memorial sculpture in Judenplatz Vienna and her resin sculpture for the empty plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. She completed ‘House’- the cast of a Victorian terrace house in October 1993. It was considered for casting an entire house in 1991.

[‘From her earliest casts of wardrobes and hot water bottles to her recent series of towering staircases, her body of work constitutes an ever-expanding lexicon of over looked spaces. She inverts everyday objects, turning them into ghostly negatives of themselves, uncanny replicas that seem familiar yet strange.’]- Taken from book: Rachel Whiteread (Modern Artists series) by Charlotte Mullins, (2004)

As an artist Rachael Whiteread tends to create post-war bedroom furniture, the child-hood territory of her generation bringing their value in cast models.

[‘Whiteread evacuated memories like an archaeologist, continuing to hunt for traces of past human life as she went on to cast a room, then a whole house. When she began creating ahistoric objects such as plywood living units and stand-alone floors to further her investigation into form and materials, her work became increasingly abstract.’] - Taken from book: Rachel Whiteread (Modern Artists series) by Charlotte Mullins, (2004)

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This is my Unit 1 final piece collage of a really close up part of my hat.

For this, I involved a range of materials such as gouache paint, Indian ink, charcoal and coloured chalk as well as fine ink pen.

It started off as four individual quick studies of my hat then I tore pieces from that and stuck it down onto a large sheet and with this I continued and worked on top of this overly created a bigger mixed media version, which I find worked really well.

I like the use of bold colour tones and the greys- I find that this indicates warmer or shadowed areas that could also symbolise the difference with each woven plait.

The collage does look kind of dense and busy towards the centre but I find that this gives it direction and suggestive movement.

So this as being the end of Unit 1, I think this college sums up the different techniques of materials I used throughout that Unit- since I did try and add more than one kind of material.

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Roland Barthes was born in 1915. In his time he was a French literary theorist, philosopher and critic. He influenced the development of schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, and post-structuralism. He died in 1980.

His book: ‘Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography’ is described as being a graceful, contemplative volume that was published in 1979. Commenting on artists such as Avedon, Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Roland Barthes presents photography as being outside the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind, and rendering death and loss more acutely than any other medium.

‘Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.’ http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Camera_Lucida.html?id=vHnIQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

  In the book ‘Basic Critical Theory for Photographers’ which has a section analysing Roland Barthes’ book ‘Camera Lucida’ in parts goes into more detail.

  It states that Roland Barthes had been fascinated by photography in opposition to the cinema and was overcome by a desire to understand what the ‘essential feature’ was that separated photography from other images.

His point of view on the matter was that the photograph mechanically makes infinite something that only occurred once and couldn’t be repeated. Also unlike other images, the photograph always seems to point to or show something- it is ‘...a weightless transparent envelope’ consequently making it impossible to distinguish it from what it represents.

‘The photograph as signifier is inextricably bound with its referent.’ The subject is always shown in a photograph and there’s no mark other than the show of persistence of the referent making it difficult to understand photography. And a person would try different ways of understanding it such as looking at the photos historical or sociological surroundings. Roland Barthes realised neither group, explains the book.    [‘...discussed precisely the photographs which interest me, which give me pleasure or emotion...I saw only the referent, the desired object, the beloved body...’ Dismissing sociological commentary, he wanted to be ‘...a primitive, without culture’.]

[‘Prior to photography, portraits generally showed a person’s social status or wealth. Photography has changed the way we look at ourselves, but there is no history of looking.’] I find that this links with what John Berger was saying in ‘Ways of Seeing’ about how historic painted portrait did suggest that person’s social status and wealth judging by clothing and what was positioned into the painting. Photography has a huge impact in how we see things around us.

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“Everything around the image is part of its meaning. Its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is. Everything around it confirms and consolidates its meaning.”- John Berger

John Berger who was born in the year 1926 is an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. One of his most famous was an essay he commissioned on art criticism called Ways of Seeing¬- this was also a four part BBC series.

I watched and took detailed notes on some of the episodes on ‘Ways of seeing’. Moreover, the first episode covers the fundamentals of seeing the image and the impact of photography. John Berger breaks down the concept keeping the audience in mind and explains how: “perspective centres everything on the eye of the beholder. It is like a beam from a lighthouse, only instead of light travelling outwards, appearances travel in. Our tradition of art called those appearances reality.”

Additionally, he implies that the act of seeing and recognition tends to come before words. As analysed in a book titled Basic Critical Theory for Photographers by Ashley La Grange (on Ways of Seeing): ‘It is seeing that establishes our world, but we use words to explain this world. Despite this he argues there is always a distinction between what we see and what we know. The example he gives is that of us seeing the sun revolving around the earth but knowing the opposite.’

‘The act of seeing is active; it is an act of choice. We see what we look at and so relate to it’- Book Quote from Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

Quite early on in the first video of Ways of Seeing John Berger brings to light that: “The invention of the camera has changed not only what we see, but how we see it. In a crucial but quite simple way, it has even changed paintings painted long before it was invented.” He leads on from this point and talks about how a picture of something isn’t the thing it else but just a reproduction of the original which has been manipulated and altered by the effect of sounds.

“An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced…which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance…” says John Berger as quoted in the book.

In the video he talks about how a painting can cause an effect from where it is placed in a room or building. There’s a silence about looking at a painting in person then how you would see it as a photograph, almost an understanding. “Originally, paintings were an integral part of the building for which they were designed. Sometimes, when you go into a renaissance church or chapel, you have the feeling that the image is on the wall are records of the building’s interior life. Together, they make up the building’s memory, so much are they part of the life and individuality of the building.”

“Occasionally, this uninterrupted silence and the stillness of painting can be very striking.”- John Berger

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Perspective makes the eye the centre of the visible world, but the human eye can only be at one place at a time. It takes its visible world with it as it walks.

John Berger

'Ways Of Seeing' BBC Series

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In Class we discussed as a group these three artists: Max Ernst, Hannah Hoch and Pablo Picasso in which we initially researched in split groups then brought to the table our findings. We talked about the art movements (Dada, surrealism and Cubism) and what we thought about it and what it could be about- represent. Following on we looked at the style of their works and also personal views on these artists and their work. Using class notes and internet research on the two other artist I produced a brief summary on them:

Hannah Hoch (1889-1978)

Hannah Hoch in her time was the driving force of 20th century colleges and was a part of the Dada art movement but in her time she wasn’t very famous for she very kept self and private about her life. ‘Hoch’s works responded to everyday life with a sly humour. They often contain figures composed of parts differing radically in scale, but whose unity is undeniable.’

‘In her ‘Cut with the Cake Knife’, these means were used to give a perplexing view of the city, a place of infinite choice and variety in its activities, whose varied inhabitants crowd between wheels and cogs on which it runs.’

[Bibliography quote taken from- (book title): Dada & Surrealism; (author): Matthew Gale; (Publication date): 1997]

Today, Hannah is famous for her 20th Century collages. In her work she stuck to the concept of relationships, beauty and the makings of art where she used images from fashion magazines and illustrated journals to create humorous and expressive commentaries on society during a time of a huge social change. In my work I could use this artist’s work as inspiration to embed more personality in my collages and have a concept that is meaningful and can be shown through my work.

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/hannah-hch

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and poet who spent a large portion of his life in France. Popular artist in the 20 century he is also known for co-inventing and being a part of the Cubism art movement. Pablo used the intaglio printmaking process- engraving, drypoint, etching and aquatint are intaglio forms of printmaking. In Pablo Picasso’s work he used a lot of tonal colour, line and perspective in terms of formal elements.

http://www.sapergalleries.com/PicassoPrintmakingTechniques.html

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Research On Max Ernst

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Max Ernst was a German painter, Sculptor, Graphic artist and a poet. He was primary pioneer for the Dada and Surrealism art movement- one of the most important art movements of that century. Dada and surrealism involved fragments of irrelevance and represented the subconscious mind and from a group discussion in class we linked this to the possibility of it being their reactions to the first world war- nonsense. Max Ernst created a graphic art technique called frottage in 1925. ‘Aside from wood boards, he also utilized textures from leaves, bark, thread, straw, textiles, netting, and dried paint as the starting point of his frottages. He regularly shifted the paper while rubbing: “When I intensely stared at the drawing won in this manner, at the ‘dark spots, and others of a delicate, light, semi-darkness,’ I was by the sudden augmentation of my visionary facilities with contrasting and superimposed pictures.” Inspired by the resulting structures, associations were produced that the artist reshaped into new pictorial worlds.’- http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Stockholm/Exhibitions/2008/Max-Ernst/Collage-Frottage-Grattage/ He used it in his work in effect to transfer different textures from objects to his work. I could use these ideas in my work because Max Ernst used materials such as leaves, bark, thread and netting as the starting point of his frottage. As part of our class unit we’ve been collecting natural objects and textured materials- I could use this more and frottage it into my work.

Book (Picture 1 & 2): Dada & Surrealism Matthew Gale 1997

Book (picture 3 & 4): Max Ernst 1891- 1976: Beyond Painting Ulrich Bischoff 1994

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On Tuesday 30th we were in the print room in College creating monoprints using natural objects, tracings of our previous studies of fruit of vegetable, newspaper, magazine text and images and textural objects with interesting patterns. What I did was: - Roll oil based ink onto a clear, hard work surface -Once the ink was evenly rolled out, I placed a sheet of A4 or A3 paper over it and traced on top the drawing I wanted to monoprint. -I continued with different tracings of vegetable and fruits in different sequences. Some I did repetitively and with the magazine pictures I combined some with words and headlines. -When I wanted to monoprint text I had to trace it onto tracing paper, turn it over to then write it over the paper so it’d come out the right way instead of backwards. It’s mirror image.

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A representation of one of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographic work, Idris khan used the method of photographic print to create this image. In terms of visual language this image uses tone to solidify its composition and even though there’s no colour, it’s still powerful for the way the edgy tonal matter gives the picture a subconscious- in the dark feel. Tone is used effectively in the way it gives the building ground shadow and defines the fine line details of the floor in front. This gives it realism qualities which in contrast to the illustrative look the building possesses it acts as a reminder to the viewer that it was a photograph. Focusing more on the building itself, I can see that the use of line busies the shape to an extent that it looks like it’s revealing the internal Skelton structure of the building instead showing 3 dimensional qualities for the exterior. Adding to this, I think in some cases having this kind of blurred 3 dimensional look of the inside structure makes the building look light and less stable- but on the other hand this could be what Idris Khan wanted to portray- the unstableness of this building? There’s a slight checker stripy pattern that cloaks the front exterior of the building- I think shows the separation between the inside and outside of the building, the wall in other words which add to hazy, unfocused look the picture possesses. Overly, I think the photographic print gives the picture a very historic and mysterious look with is very fascinating to the eye.

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Idris Khan layered and stretched (Juxtaposed) 70-100 postcards for each image to create this artwork of an historic building. Idris Khan creates "a feeling of stretched time".

The bottom centre of the picture isn’t quite distorted but has a smudged look about it that the picture gives off an impression that there’s a whole different scene below the building that could be tapped into its history or landscape. The etched black gives the bottom section of the picture an embedded shadow that takes up the majority of that section making it look past tense and mysterious. It does have a more grounded and sceptical feel to it due to the haziness of the undefined outline of the building- so a lot more uncertainty is made to what is actually in the picture. Similarly to how Cy Twombly embeds interesting things into his work to create a response/reaction from his viewers or the simply wanting figure it out; Idris Khan does this by including many pictures in layers in effect that it seems to tell a story and the more you look at it the more you discover.

The background has other builders that are tinted white in contrast to the heaviness of the circular building in the centre and the scene below- this use of contrasting tone adds to the effect of it looking historic and past tense. Also because there are so many layers it almost looks like a memory because there’s a slight calm feel that the grey scale picture is giving. The texture of looks both rigid and smooth due to the exaggeration of the lines and the way it moves across the page. The clouds look light in this translucent picture but overall it’s an interesting piece.